Greece Overpower Italy For Bronze

The Greek bench storms the court after Greece captured the bronze medal with the win against Italy

Greece claimed bronze at the U16 European Championship as they rolled to a straightforward victory over Italy.

Bouncing back from their sole loss in the tournament in the semi-final, Greece dominated in all aspects of the game to overpower their opponents.

They took control with a 10-0 run late in the first quarter, taking a 22-9 lead when Georgios Papagiannis made a lay-up.

The lead was 15 when Papagiannis hit a jump-shot with 5:33 to go to half-time before Italy recovered to cut it to 10, 34-24, at half-time.

But any hopes that this was the start of a bigger rally and a way back into the game were swiftly put to bed at the start of the third quarter as Greece scored the first 11 points from the restart, the run highlighted by a three-pointer from Dionysis Skoulidas as Greece stormed into a 45-24 lead.

There would be no way back from there against a Greece team fired up after losing their unbeaten run at the penultimate hurdle to miss out on a place in the final.

Vasileios Charalampopoulos, averaging double figures in the tournament but held to just two by Spain in the semi-final, was back on form as he scored nine in 24 minutes while Papagiannis led the way with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Skoulidas finished with 20 points.